CHICAGO (AP) Jonquel Jones and Alex Bentley scored 20 points apiece to help the
Connecticut Sun beat the Chicago Sky 110-72 on Friday night.
Chiney Ogwumike added 17 points, Courtney Williams scored 15 and Alyssa Thomas
had 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Sun (4-0). Connecticut is off to its best
start in franchise history.
Williams hit a 3-pointer to open the second quarter that capped a 13-3 spurt and
gave the Sun a 26-19 lead early in the second quarter. Cheyenne Parker scored
six consecutive points in 64 seconds to pull Chicago (2-3) within one, but
Connecticut scored 22 of the next 30 points – including 3-pointers by Jasmine
Thomas and Jones – to make it 48-33 and the Sky trailed by at least nine the
rest of the way.
The Sun have scored at least 100 points in three of their four games this season
and are averaging a WNBA-high 99.8 per game.
Rookie Diamond DeShields led Chicago, which has lost three in a row, with 15
points.
Sky Quotes:
HEAD COACH AMBER STOCKS
(On message to the locker room after tough game)
You know I’m a numbers person, anybody who knows me knows that. So, I like to
deal with the facts and address them head on, and embrace the numbers so we can
learn from them and apply. And all was not gloom and doom. Yes, we gave up 18
offensive rebounds, and yes we had 23 turnovers, we did shoot 42 percent from
the three-point line and we did have 25 free-throw attempts and anyone who knows
the area that we have been increasing our emphasis on getting to the free throw
line. That‘s been a big improvement. I like our aggression to the rim. At
halftime we were shooting 46 percent from the field. So, when we clean up the
turnovers, the buckets were going in. We have great scorers and we have great
ball-handlers and great great passers. Courtney Vandersloot and Jamierra
Faulkner are two of the absolute best point guards in pro-basketball, period.
And they, you know will take care of the ball and score they can dish it and
they can score, so I am not by any means dissuade from staying focused on our
objectives and taking one game at a time.
(On Courtney Vandersloot’s first game back)
We have a new motion office. And as you know that takes time as well. This time
multiple games from now, multiple years from now the flow of things will be
better as with any of you on a new job. You know when you have a new job, you
have new responsibilities. Year two and three into that job and your
responsibilities at work you have the flow of it better. And the same will come
with our offense as sloot said with the players playing together as well as the
players playing with the offensive system.
(On Diamond Deshields)
What was funny is my message to her can be very minimal because we have great
leaders on our team who are constantly giving her tips and insight. And you can
see in multiple scenarios not only in games, but after practice, Sloot giving
Diamond nuggets of wisdom, CP sharing wisdom and insight with Diamond. So, as a
coach when you have great leaders around your rookies it makes my job that much
easier and she does have a lot to learn and she will do that she’s got great
people to learn from.
COURTNEY VANDERSLOOT (G)
(On getting game action) It was different, you know. And I learned that really
in the first half and I gotta take responsibility about that. I’ll be better and
that will help us be better for sure. But like what I said, I enjoy playing with
this group. I think we have a lot of potential, we have a lot of young talent,
athleticism. Some of things our wings do still impresses me so much, you know.
And we are gonna hone in on that and use it to our advantage. Once we get our
offense down our defense. We need to step it up on defense, obviously. I don’t
think offense is our problem, but you know like I said I am excited to see where
this group is gonna go, where we are gonna get better, starting with me.
(On her play)
It’s hard after a game losing by 35. We can take some positive out of this. I
felt pretty uncomfortable at first. I think I got more comfortable as the game
went on. And I kind of expected that, it wasn’t gonna be easy. I wouldn’t expect
this. I knew it was going to be at least some learning curve. Cause I’m playing
with new players you know, I’ve had two practices, played with a completely
different roster 10 days ago you know. So, I knew it was going to be tough. But
i think it is only going to get better, I really like this team. And I really
like what we put together here. I just gotta get more comfortable and they gotta
get more comfortable with me. It is gonna come together I am definitely not
worried about it. But yea today didn’t go as well as I thought it was going to.
(On turnovers and playing with Astou Ndour)
Yea, you know. I think I had probably three just trying to enter into the post.
Just learning you know, Astou we just met each other two days ago. So, I don’t
know where she likes it, you know. So learning that, that she wants it high, you
know. Or being able to know when I can throw it and when I can’t kind of thing.
Those are all, I mean I expected some of that but like I said when I clean that
up this team is going to be completely different.
CHEYENNE PARKER (F)
(On her play) I mean I’m really not happy with my performance especially
defensively and the o-boards that is supposed to be my territory. So, I am a
little disappointed in my defense and my defensive rebounding. The 5 for 5,
that’s awesome I suppose keep that going. But I think that, I agree with both
what Coach and Courtney both said like we just need to continue to focus on what
we have to do to build our chemistry with the team and focus on our objectives.
Sun Quotes:
HEAD COACH CURT MILLER:
(On getting off to a good start)
“I give our kids a lot of credit. We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well,
but we had a lot of points off of their turnovers and we got on the boards when
we weren’t making shots and got second chance points. So, almost 60 points
tonight either came on second chance or off of their turnovers. It was a great
scoring output for us, but honestly we didn’t shoot it real well, so we had to
do some of the other things, and we did. So, to our kids credits we had a great
night on the boards.”
(On making improvements to continue winning streak) “I think there’s certainly
areas of growth. I thought that we fouled again too much tonight. We were a
little bit slow on rotations and at the point of attack. So, we have to continue
getting better, but it was a big start, our first road game of the year, to put
up those kind of points. Even though they’re undermanned, it was a big win for
us tonight for confidence it was a way to start out a very, very difficult road
trip. It was a great way to start it out.”
ALYSSA THOMAS (F):
(On getting second double double this season)
“We’ve just got to be aggressive, and kind of do a little bit of everything. Me
personally, shot wasn’t falling, so I just tried to help my team in a different
way tonight.”
(On getting rebound that allowed for second chance shots) “We weren’t making
shots early, so we had to get on the boards to get something going for us.That’s
one of my strengths, so I just kind of crashed hard out there.”
ALEX BENTLEY (G):
(On rebounds and second chance shots)
“They created opportunities for me to score for sure. My post players were
getting in there rebounding. AT [Alyssa Thomas] is a rebounding machine, so she
was rebounding greatly for us tonight and kicking out, so, yeah, that got me
wide open.”
(On keeping the win streak going) “I think we’re just playing together, playing
hard, focusing on the game plan, and executing it. [We have to] just keep
working hard, keep learning each other, keep focusing on the game plan.
Defensively, we’re locked in, so if we continue to stay locked in, we’ll be
fine.”
